Linkage tests for quantitative traits that utilize all pairs have previously been proposed (Olson and Wijsman, Genet Epidemiol 10:87, 1993). Implementation of these tests are currently underway, as is investigation of improving the power of the test statistics. The benefits of using more accurate covariance structures, alternative sampling schemes, and more efficient means of estimating identity-by-descent probabilities are being explored. The methods are also being extended to the multipoint setting; estimation of multipoint identity-by-descent probabilities using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods is currently being explored.